nightshade

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English nightshade, also nighteschede and nightschode,^[2][3] inherited from Old English nihtscada,^{[4][3][5][6][2][7]} apparently a compound of niht (“night”) and sceadu (“shade”),^{[8][2][6][9][4]} which gives the literal meaning "shade of night".^[5][7] The compound is common in Germanic:^[5] its cognates are Middle Dutch nachtscāde, Old Saxon nahtscado, Middle Low German nachtschāde, Old High German nahtscato and their descendants Dutch nachtschade and German Nachtschatten.^[4][6] Dictionaries explain the name by the berries: by their poisonous or narcotic properties,^{[4][6][7][10]} and by their dark colour as well.^[9][11] The OED suggests a development from the darkness of night to something that evokes its terror, and points to transferred uses of the same compound for the nightjar in regional German, Swedish and Danish.^[4] It also notes a rival account, by F. A. Wood (1926), that takes the second element from the Germanic base of scathe, with which folk etymology connected it in Dutch through schade.^[4] The Middle English endings may also show folk etymology, perhaps after shode.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A poisonous plant of the genus Solanum or Atropa: the OED's first record is in the Old English Antwerp Glossary,^[4] dated about 1000 in its 1989 edition,^[12] and Dictionary.com dates the word before 1000.^[13] An Old English glossary equates it with Latin strumus and uva lupina.^[14] Merriam-Webster gives "before 12th century".^[2][15]

Semantic evolution

The name has always belonged to poisonous or narcotic plants, but the number it covers has grown.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary's records cover plants of the genus Solanum, such as bittersweet and black nightshade,^[3] and in the late 16th century it became a label with a distinguishing word: for plants of that genus and others of the family, in Lyte's translation of Dodoens (1578), then for plants of other families thought to resemble them, in Gerard's Herball (1597).^[4] Johnson (1755) counted two kinds, common and deadly.^[16] The 1989 edition of the OED dates the sense of deadly nightshade specifically to 1839.^[12] In Kent dialect the word could mean a species of goosefoot.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – nihtscada, a poisonous or narcotic plant.^[12][4] Dictionary.com says before 1000.^[13]
• before 1400 – Middle English nichtheschode, a plant of the genus Solanum, in the Alphita.^[3][18]
• 1578 – with a distinguishing word, of plants of the same family.^[4]
• 1597 – with a distinguishing word, of plants of other families.^[4]
• 1839 – of the deadly nightshade, or belladonna.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any plant of the genus Solanum, especially the black nightshade or bittersweet.^[2][13][4]
2. The belladonna, or deadly nightshade.^[2][18][8]
3. The henbane.^[2][18]
4. Any of various plants of other families thought to resemble these, such as enchanter's nightshade.^[19][4]

Word family

• black nightshade
• deadly nightshade
• enchanter's nightshade
• woody nightshade

Related words

• night
• shade

Usage notes

The OED has a separate entry for night-shade, formed later from night and shade: in literary use the shade or darkness of night, from 1558, and in one record before 1625 a prostitute, in slang.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
15. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
19. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins